Never Say Genius
Never Say Genius
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HarperCollins
Just the Series: The Genius Files Vol. 2   

Series and Publisher: The Genius Files   

Annotation: As their cross-country journey with their parents continues through the midwest, twins Coke and Pepsi, now thirteen, again face strange assassins at such places as the first McDonald's restaurant and Cedar Point amusement park.
 
Reviews: 5
Catalog Number: #70014
Format: Perma-Bound Edition
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright Date: 2012
Edition Date: 2013 Release Date: 12/26/12
Pages: 277 pages
ISBN: Publisher: 0-06-182769-X Perma-Bound: 0-605-60331-6
ISBN 13: Publisher: 978-0-06-182769-3 Perma-Bound: 978-0-605-60331-8
Dewey: Fic
LCCN: 2011019363
Dimensions: 20 cm.
Language: English
Reviews:
Horn Book

Picking up where Mission Unstoppable ended, Coke and Pepsi continue their cross-country trek, now from Wisconsin to Washington, DC, to join a secret government program that employs smart kids to solve America's problems. The (sometimes grating) humor continues in this volume as the twins outmaneuver perilous challenges. Readers are again encouraged to track the characters' route online with Google maps.

Kirkus Reviews

Twins Coke and Pepsi McDonald squeak through numerous murder attempts at roadside attractions across the Midwest and on eastward. After berating readers who skipped the opener, Mission Unstoppable (2011), Gutman picks up his unconventional cross-country travelogue where he left off. He takes the RV holding his 13-year-old brainiacs and their oblivious parents from the National Mustard Museum in Spring Green, Wisc., to the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. Along the way, he pauses to suspend the sibs in French-fry cages over boiling oil outside the first McDonald's, imprison them in glass vats of soft-serve ice cream at Ohio's spectacular Cedar Point Amusement Park, lock them inside Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum (with a Megadeth track cranked up to mind-blowing level) and subject them to other perils. What's up? It seems aptly named bad guy Archie Clone and other assassins are out to kill, or perhaps test, them before they can join a secret organization of child geniuses and collect a huge reward. Tucking in small photos, instructions for following the route on Google Maps, facts about attractions large and small and mysterious ciphered messages, the author brings his confused but resourceful youngsters to an explosive climax and a shocking revelation that guarantees further adventures on the road back to the left coast. Nothing spices up a boring road trip like moments of extreme terror. (Adventure. 10-12)

School Library Journal

Gr 3-6 Myra Lucretia Taylor expressively reads Joyce Sidman's lush verse (Houghton Mifflin, 2010) in a warm and soothing voice that adds to the poems' nocturnal mood. She subtly differentiates between the poems and the narratives that are interspersed between them. Listeners are first drawn in by the lyrical "Welcome to the Night," which is followed by an introduction to the nocturnal world and to the raccoon's adaptations that make it a successful night hunter. In each of the following ten poems, an animal or plant is introduced and its night habits are explored in a variety of poetic forms. Then, in a brief prose paragraph, additional information about the night dweller and new vocabulary are presented. For example, after "Crickets Speak," we are told about the mechanics of stridulationproducing a shrill sound by rubbing body parts together. Listeners learn how snails build their shell, what a porcupette is and how it grows, how orb spiders spin webs, how owls hunt their prey, and much more. Finally, "Moon's Lament" closes the nighttime tour. The book's glossary is not included in the recording. The Newbery Honor book's gorgeous, detailed linoleum print illustrations by Rick Allen are as beautiful as the poems, so be sure to have it available to use in tandem with the recording. The second track includes page-turning signals. The expressive, engaging poems and the rich and interesting factual information will attract students interested in nature as well as poetry. MaryAnn Karre, Horace Mann and Thomas Jefferson Schools, Binghamton, NY

Word Count: 48,526
Reading Level: 4.8
Interest Level: 5-9
Accelerated Reader: reading level: 4.8 / points: 7.0 / quiz: 150768 / grade: Middle Grades
Reading Counts!: reading level:4.4 / points:13.0 / quiz:Q57080
Lexile: 720L
Guided Reading Level: T
Fountas & Pinnell: T

The most exciting road trip in history continues! In this second book in the thrilling, New York Times bestselling adventure series, twelve-year-old twins Coke and Pepsi McDonald see the Midwest like you’ve never seen it before.

They never asked to be geniuses. They never asked to get lowered into a basket of boiling French fries, either. And they certainly never asked to be frozen in soft-serve ice cream, stampeded in a wild stadium riot, or kidnapped on a high-speed roller coaster. But that's what happens when a red-haired villain named Archie Clone is chasing you across America. This just might be the most dangerous road trip in history—and the most awesome!

With Dan Gutman’s laugh-out-loud humor and featuring photos and weird-but-true American tourist destinations like the National Mustard Museum, The Genius Files is a one-of-a-kind mix of geography and fun.

Don't miss the next action-packed book, The Genius Files #3: You Only Die Twice!


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